


Growing Up Dark

by A_Marie



Category: Revolution (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 04:31:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9219146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Marie/pseuds/A_Marie
Summary: What was it like growing up in the dark?Charlie and Bass have a conversation.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I know the show has been off the air for a few years but I had this one-shot between Charlie & Monroe that I never posted anywhere. I figured now was as good a time as any to share it. 
> 
> I was a die-hard Charloe fan but the writers weren't on the same page so here’s just a little story about growing up in a dark world.

Charlie wasn’t bothered by the darkness, it was familiar to her. She had vague recollections of a world with power. She was a small child when the power went out and she grew up knowing a world in darkness. Her father used to keep candles and lanterns lit throughout the house, especially on the second floor where she and Danny had bedrooms. Danny was afraid of the dark and usually ended up in her room after the candles blew out. She loved her father, but he wasn’t the same after her mother died. He found Maggie and she was nice enough but life was different for Charlie, she remembered her mother leaving and she remembered begging her not to go and she remembered her promising to come back. Maggie tried to fill a void that Charlie had given up on, she tried to be a mother, then tried to be her friend and even against all of Charlie’s hesitation and dislike, she stayed, something Charlie’s mother had not.

Now Charlie had been reunited with a mother she had long since accepted as dead and she felt nothing for her. She didn’t like her, she didn’t care about her, she certainly didn’t trust her, she didn’t love her anymore. The more Rachel had tried to get through to Charlie, the more she shut her down. Charlie’s life wasn’t normal, she had cared for her brother and her father and even after Maggie’s arrival with the family, Charlie still took responsibility for Danny. They were best friends.

Now, Charlie found herself traveling across the continent with an Uncle she re-met a year before, a back from the dead mother who still tried to act like she had never left, a sociopath who once controlled the Monroe Republic and its vicious militia responsible for killing her father, Danny & Nora, who ended up being the closest thing she had to a sister, a computer-genius and her dad’s best friend who was the last connection she had to her dad and a grandfather that she barely remembered who always took her mother’s side. She found herself fighting and killing men, something she had never imagined when she first learned to hunt using the crossbow. She had learned how to use it from a hunter in the village, since Danny was sick and her father was a poor shot, she took up the crossbow to do her part when the hunting parties went out. She was a quick learn and became one of the best shots they had, she could hit a small target at a greater distance than anyone else in Sylvania Estates. That skill had helped her out this last year, it had made her an asset and for once, she belonged somewhere.

The group had set up camp for the night, they were sleeping under the stars not too far from a river but far enough off the main path that they would have protection at night. They each took a watch while the others slept. Charlie never slept well anymore, she was constantly on alert. Her crossbow was never far from her reach; usually one hand would find its way onto it at night, in case she needed to use it immediately. 

“Charlie.” She listened closely, still pretending to be asleep but already wide awake feeling the crossbow beneath her fingers. “Charlie. It’s your watch.”

She opened her eyes and could see Miles, standing just a few feet from her. She grabbed the crossbow as she stood up. She simply nodded to him and he lay down in the space she had vacated and she began her time, watching, listening. 

It was a quiet night; the stars were bright above and lit the vast open space before her. She was always intrigued by them. She knew there were names for the stars, they had taught them to the kids in the village, but she couldn’t remember any of them. 

She heard movement from behind her followed by a scratchy voice, clearly having just woken up.

“It’s only me.” Monroe was stretching his muscles and wiping sleep from his eyes, when she turned around.

“It’s not your watch. You can go back to sleep.”

Monroe walked over to where she stood, looking out at the vast open space before them. “It’s a nice night.”

Charlie looked over at Monroe, perplexed by the statement. “Yeah.”

They fell into silence for a while, both taking in the stillness and calm, something they hadn’t experienced in a while. 

Monroe was the first to break the silence. “What was it like?”

Charlie looked over at him, confused. “What was what like?”

“Growing up, in the dark, in the Monroe Republic, any of it.”

Charlie took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I don’t remember much before the blackout. I remember riding in a red wagon down a street with cars just stopped on the road and it smelled like something was on fire, but there were no sirens. Other than that, I was young and over time, I think the memories started to fade and I couldn’t keep them from disappearing. 

Sylvania Estates wasn’t a bad place to grow up. We ended up there shortly after we left the city, it was one of the first villages we found that had open space. The houses in Sylvania Estates were mostly empty from previous occupants who had left, usually the houses were left with furniture that couldn’t be moved quickly or easily. The house we moved into had 3 bedrooms, so Danny & I took the rooms on the second floor and my parents took the bedroom on the first floor. My dad said it was easier to protect the house from the first floor.”

Monroe watched Charlie’s profile as her eyes got lost in a memory.

“We had been in Sylvania Estates about 3 months before the men started to build gates, the adults would meet once a week without the kids, my mom called it an HOA, I’m still not sure what that is, but that’s what she called it.”

“Home Owner’s Association.”

Charlie was pulled out of her memory. “What?”

“HOA. It stands for Home Owner’s Association. Before the blackout, communities would have these kinds of associations to take care of the community. They would pay into the association and then the association would pay for snow removal, lawn care, garbage pickup, things like that.”

“Oh” Charlie paused, “seems to be a waste to me.”

Bass shrugged his shoulders. “Anyway, go on.”

“So the adults created all these rules, no one outside of the gates after dark – unless you were with a hunting party, there was always someone at the gates on those nights. Everyone contributed to survive, there was a community garden, all of the kids took these classes with Aaron mostly, but some other adults also taught reading, writing, hunting, fire building, any skills they thought we’d need as we got older. 

I joined the hunting party for our family. My dad was an awful shot and my mother had already left, so I started going out with the men, usually during the day but as I got older, I was allowed to go at night, we got the best kills at night. Whatever we killed was brought back to the village, cleaned and portioned out for each family, some nights we had enough and some nights we didn’t.”

Charlie stopped for a moment, quietly looking at the vast open space in front of them. “Danny was my best friend, my only friend really. I didn’t fit in with the other kids in the village, with my mom gone and my dad not very useful, I provided for our family. Maggie tried to fit in but I always kept her away, she wanted to be someone I hadn’t needed in years. It wasn’t her fault, she shouldn’t have followed me when I left to go after Danny, neither of them should have but that was Aaron and Maggie, loyal to the end.”

Monroe watched Charlie’s eyes glisten with unshed tears.

“I don’t hate you.” She turned to finally face him, “I should, but I don’t.”

“You have every reason to hate me.”

“You saved me.”

“I saved you?” Monroe could only look at her in shock.

“You did. If it wasn’t for you, I would have my dad and Danny and Maggie and live in a nice house in a nice village and that would be it. I would live and die in a place that I didn’t belong. I never belonged. Finding Miles, facing off with you, it made me feel alive for the first time in a long time.”

“Charlie, you should hate me for everything I took away from you. I kept your mother from you and your brother and father died because of me. ME! My choices, my decisions, my actions.” 

“What does hating you accomplish? You have no power, no militia, no republic – I have no brother, no father, no home. It doesn’t seem that either of us won. You gave me back my Uncle Miles and he’s the closest thing I have to real family. He reminds me a lot of my dad.”

“You have your mother and Gene.”

“I don’t have them. I never did. If I had them, they never would have left in the first place.”

“Your mother didn’t have a choice.” 

“Yes she did. She always had a choice and she chose wrong.”

“Charlie – “ Before he could say anything further, Charlie cut him off.

“You wanted to know what it was like – that’s what it was like. I didn’t mind the dark, it was the daylight that bothered me, sit and wait for something to happen that never does. She never came back, I never made friends, we never did anything. Life was quite boring during the day but at night, the world changed and everything was still and quiet, it was everything I remembered it to be before the blackout. It was the only memory I really kept from before.”

Charlie started to walk away, leaving Bass at watch, she turned back. “I don’t hate you. You should stop hating yourself. Goodnight Bass.”

“Goodnight, Charlie.” 

Bass watched her curl up in the spot he had vacated and noticed how she held her crossbow close, she wasn’t what he expected, she had more Miles in her than Ben. He couldn’t forgive himself for what he had done, but maybe it was time to start to try. 

Maybe Charlie was right, maybe the dark was familiar and comfortable because it was the one thing that never changed after the blackout. People changed, places changed but the darkness, that stayed the same. Bass stared out at the vast open space in front of him, everything would be different in the morning, Charlie was right about that but for now, he could be anywhere he wanted because the darkness had never left, nights were still as dark after the blackout as before.


End file.
